Publications

The impact of methylparaben and chlorine on the architecture of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia biofilms

Pereira Ana Rita, Rooney Liam M, Gomes Inês B, Simões Manuel, McConnell Gail

Science of the Total Environment Vol 951 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175646

Quantifying the fractal complexity of nutrient transport channels in Escherichia coli biofilms under varying cell shape and growth environment

Bottura Beatrice, Rooney Liam, Feeney Morgan, Hoskisson Paul A, McConnell Gail

Microbiology Vol 170 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001511

Printing, characterizing, and assessing transparent 3D printed lenses for optical imaging

Rooney Liam M, Christopher Jay, Watson Ben, Susir Kumar Yash, Copeland Laura, Walker Lewis D, Foylan Shannan, Amos William B, Bauer Ralf, McConnell Gail

Advanced Materials Technologies Vol 9 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202400043

Printing, characterising, and applying transparent 3D printed lenses for optical imaging

Rooney Liam, Christopher Jay, Watson Benjamin, Susir Kumar Yash, Copeland Laura, Walker Lewis, Foylan Shannan, Amos William, Bauer Ralf, McConnell Gail

European Light Microscopy Initiative Congress 2024 (2024)

Sensing across scales : three approaches to study biofilm oxygen gradients to inform the design of better antimicrobial therapeutics

Rooney Liam, Bottura Beatrice, Dietrich Lars, McConnell Gail

European Light Microscopy Initiative Congress 2024 (2024)

Using 3D printed optical elements for multifocal image scanning microscopy

Christopher Jay, Donnachie Mark, Rooney Liam, McConnell Gail, Uttamchandani Deepak, Bauer Ralf

Proceedings of SPIE Vol 12827 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3002507

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Research Interests

Dr Rooney is a Postdoctoral Researcher based at the Strathclyde Institute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. His research interests lie in the development and application of advanced optical imaging methods to the field of microbiology.

Dr Rooney is involved in several ongoing research projects. He is currently funded by the Leverhulme Trust to research new manufacturing and characterisation methods for optical imaging, to democratise access to high-performance microscopy and create open hardware imaging solutions. He is also conducting ongoing research to understand the role of biofilm transport channels which he first identified during his PhD, developing 3D microbial culture platforms, and developing new imaging techniques for the life sciences.

Aside from his research, Dr Rooney is heavily involved in various Learned Societies. He is the current Chair of the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) Early Career Committee, a member of the RMS Life Sciences Committee, and the RMS Council. Dr Rooney is also a Microbiology Society Champion and a Forging Futures Ambassador for the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA). He was awarded the Junior Medal for Microbiology by the Microbiology Society for his PhD research investigating biofilm structure using novel imaging methods and, more recently, the 2023 SULSA Early Career Development Award which funds an ongoing collaboration with researchers at Columbia University, New York, USA.

Professional Activities

ELMI

Organiser

4/6/2024

A New Channel for Biofilm Treatment: Exploring the Potential of Biofilm Transport Channels for Drug Delivery

Speaker

4/2024

Sensing Oxygen Concentrations in Biofilms: A route towards targeted biofilm therapies

Speaker

4/11/2023

Faculty of Science Breaking Barriers 2023

Contributor

24/10/2023

Mesoscopic Microbiology: Visualising bacteria across spatial scales

Speaker

10/8/2023

Investigating the fractal nature of channels within E. coli biofilms with altered cell phenotype

Contributor

25/7/2023

More professional activities

Projects

A single-step laser fabrication approach to create antimicrobial surfaces for high-value medical devices

Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator) Liu, Qi (Principal Investigator)

In response to the growing prevalence of healthcare-associated infections and the increasing resistance to antibiotics, there is an urgent need for antimicrobial-coated medical devices. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) are widely recognised for their potent antibacterial properties, making them a prime candidate for such applications. However, current physical and chemical synthesis methods for AgNP are costly, time-consuming and pollutive. We aimed to develop a new single-step fabrication approach to generate AgNP-coated antimicrobial microstructure surfaces, using hybridising subtractive laser ablation and additive chemical deposition processes. The microstructures generated by this technique were investigated to understand their role in potentiating the antimicrobial activity of functionalised surfaces. This project provided a cost-effective and sustainable process to enhance the safety and functionality of medical devices prone to biofouling, such as surgical tools and implants.

01-Oct-2024 - 30-Sep-2025

Fluorescent Drugs for Difficult Bugs: Quantitative Imagin of Fluorescent Antibiotics to Track Antibiotic Uptake and Resistance in Biofilms

Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator) McConnell, Gail (Co-investigator)

10-Jun-2024 - 02-Aug-2024

High-precision chemical mapping in biofilm transport channels to inform better therapies

Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator) Dietrich, Lars (Co-investigator)

Biofilms are microbial communities linked to over 80% of infections and exhibit remarkable antimicrobial tolerance. We have developed advanced microscopy methods to visualise multi-millimetre-scale biofilms with sub-cellular resolution, providing unique cross-scale 3D overviews. We identified networks of nutrient transport channels and aim to exploit them using targeted biofilm therapeutics. However, we must understand the channel chemical microenvironment to inform new treatments. We present a dual-pronged approach to quantify the oxygen concentration throughout biofilm channel networks using high-resolution oxygen profiling and fluorescent oxygen-nanosensor imaging. These insights will inform the design of a new class of antimicrobial therapeutics to tackle recalcitrant biofilm infections.

13-Feb-2023 - 13-Feb-2024

Surface characterisation of 3D printed lenses for microscopy

Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator)

We developed a method to 3D print transparent lenses for use in optical instrumentation, with the aim of democratising access to bespoke optics for prototyping and use in low-resource settings. We required a method to accurately calculate the surface curvature, smoothness, and quality in order to determine if our 3D-printed lenses were a viable alternative to their expensive glass counterparts.

We developed, optimised, and applied a super-resolution optical interference method to image the surface of our printed lenses and quantify their curvature and surface quality. This method was implemented with a variety of printed optical elements to assure the quality of and reproducibility of 3D printed optics.

13-Jun-2022 - 01-Aug-2022

Optical methods to measure antibiotic production by Streptomycetes

Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator) Schniete, Jana Katharina (Principal Investigator)

The genus of bacteria, Streptomyces, produces around 70% of clinically relevant antibiotics in use today. They evolved the ability to secrete these chemical weapons into their local environment to ward off competing microbes and to signal over extended distances. However, understanding and quantifying the secretion of antibiotics directly from the cells into their environment is challenging.
We developed a method based on combining routine confocal fluorescence imaging with standing wave fluorescence microscopy and interference reflection microscopy to measure the volume of extracellular matrix secreted by live streptomycetes in situ. Our method was able to accurately measure the 3D volume of matrix around individual hyphae thanks to a five-fold axial resolution improvement compared to confocal microscopy alone and has translational applications for the study of extracellular matrix and antibiotic production with minimal perturbation to the bacterial cells.

07-May-2018 - 10-Aug-2018

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